Up to the present, a technology has been developed which prevents backward movement of the front portion of a vehicle toward the cabin of the vehicle in a collision with an object, by absorbing the impact of the collision through deformation of the front side frame disposed on both sides of the engine compartment.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-053022 (claim 2 and FIG. 2) discloses a technology in which the lateral sides of a front side frame are each provided with a branch frame (frame in an inclined position) which extends from the middle portion of the lateral side obliquely forward with respect to the vehicle, so that even when a collision with an object occurs, for example, in a narrow space outside the front side frame, i.e., even when a narrow offset collision occurs, the collision load is transmitted to the middle portion of the front side frame via the branch frame and thus the front side frame is deformed.